ISOZYMATIC VARIATION IN GUATEMALAN RACES OF MAIZE

Isozymatic data taken from 67 Guatemalan collections of maize were subjected to numerical taxonomic analyses to elucidate systematic relationships among the 19 maize races and subraces described for Guatemala by Wellhausen et al. As with Bolivian and Mexican races, isozymatic variation in Guatemalan maize was strongly associated with altitude. Guatemalan lowland races were in general isozymatically distinct from races of higher elevations. Two middle elevation Guatemalan races proved difficult to place taxonomically. As a group, Guatemalan highland races were isozymatically more diverse than races from lower elevations, and were rather weakly differentiated from Mexican highland races. Notably, variational patterns evident from phenetic analyses of isozyme data were generally congruent with those apparent in phylogenetic analyses. The data reported here, and in earlier studies, suggested that divergent combinations of isozymatic, karyotypic, and morphological features have evolved in local maize races from Mexico, Guatemala, and Bolivia, perhaps as the result of the different selective regimens indigenous cultivators have imposed on different regional phylogenetic lineages.